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With Attacks on Foreigners, South Africa Exposes Its Anti-Africa Bias
South Africa is struggling with the diplomatic and economic fallout from a recent episode of xenophobic violence that saw seven foreigners killed, scores wounded and thousands of people displaced. Several African governments have sharply criticized South Africa’s tardy response and sent buses and planes to repatriate their citizens. Some threatened to retaliate against South African…
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An American Pioneer in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG—For many black Americans, Professor Ken Simmons was the father of the African-American community in South Africa — not just because of his 77 years or because he had been coming here longer than just about every other member of that group. His leadership was by example. By the time Simmons died in July after…
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The Discomfort of African Americans in South Africa
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA—Most African Americans who visit Cape Town around the New Year are initially shocked by what is traditionally known here as The Coon Festival—a weeklong reverie of parties and parades where mixed race or “colored” people dress up in costumes and blackface to perform minstrel shows. The Coon Festival, more recently renamed…
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When Songs Become Hate Speech
The growing debate in the United States about the increasingly virulent hate speech by so-called Tea Party activists and their talk radio and Republican Party boosters has resonance these days in South Africa. The ruling African National Congress is engaged in an increasingly bitter court battle over its claimed right to continue singing publicly so-called…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
